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By abdallahseymour, September 12, 2009 1:53 pm

A growing call for free currency worldwide. By Sulaiman Wilms

(gm). The symptoms of the global predicament are well known. From the struggle to dominate contested regions and their energy routes, to the anarchic priva­tisation of violence, and the blatant crisis of the current financial order – all these are frequently evoked. But beyond all that, on a quite different plane, alternative models are appearing and gaining wider recognition. And at their heart, however differently formulated, is the desire for monetary freedom.

What do financial executives, Muslim jurists, small retailers and the leading Eurasian politicians all have in common? On the face of it, nothing at all. And yet through this unlikely cross-section there is a growing awareness of the defectiveness of the domi nant financial order, coupled with a desire for new reserve currencies, local money-flows, and the freedom to choose a preferred mode of payment. Admittedly this is not a subject which can claim any kind of global consistency; the con text and motivations involved are too diverse. A representative of traditional mone tary liberalism cannot consider himself in the same boat as a traditional Muslim jurist. Yet the question of money affects ­everybody on a daily basis.

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By abdallahseymour, September 6, 2009 7:18 am

From the Chapter: Currency [Islamic Currency], section four of the translation of Al-Maqrizi’s “Ighatha”;

(This chapter talks about fulus, which were small copper coins minted in addition to gold and silver coins. The term was later applied to paper money when it first appeared in the Muslim lands.)

“The third cause [of this situation (the many problems that be set the Circasian Mamluks of Egypt)] is the circulation of fulus. Know – may God grant you toward every good an easy path, and on every grace a sign and a guide – that has always been God’s custom toward His creatures and His continuous want from the Creation to the occurrence of these events and the perpetration of the crimes that we have mentioned, in all corners of the earth and among every nation, that the currency that has been used to determine prices of goods and costs of labour consists only of gold and silver. Continue reading 'Gold, silver and copper coins'»